Day 1: Anti-Racism vs. Non-Racism

Welcome To YWCA Spokane’s 14-Day Racial Equity & Social Justice Challenge

We are grateful for you dedicating the time, space, and energy to deepen your understanding of concepts related to race, power, privilege, and leadership.

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAY 10 | DAY 11 | DAY 12 | DAY 13 | DAY 14

YWCA Spokane is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, standing up for social justice, helping families, and strengthening communities.  By signing up for this 14-day challenge, engaging with the content, and using it to inform the creation of more equitable habits, you are supporting the health and well-being of your community and YWCA Spokane’s mission to promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

You will receive 14 challenge emails in total. Each will include content curated to make exploring issues related to race, power, privilege, and equitable leadership accessible, regardless of your background.

Before You Get Started

1. Please take a moment to set your intention for participation in this challenge. Consider sharing your goals for the challenge with us by leaving a comment here or by sharing online with #YWCAEquityChallenge.
2. We also encourage you to download this 14-Day Challenge Log.  This tool is designed to encourage reflection on the new information received and how you can take advantage of what the Challenge has to offer.
3. Consider participating as a group. Invite friends, family, and co-workers to join you as you take on this daily challenge. Establishing a safe environment where you can share, ask questions, and explore, can provide opportunities for you to gain insight and a better understanding of the concepts and information provided. Accountability from supportive loved ones can ward off procrastination, helping you to remain diligent with your engagement throughout the challenge and beyond.
4. Acknowledgement to those who inspired this challenge. We want to thank YWCA Greater Cleveland and YWCA Dayton for inspiring us to bring this challenge to Spokane. This challenge was originally developed by Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. and Debby Irving and has been adapted by many organizations across the country.
5. Thank you. There is no better time than now to step into action in support of an equitable community supporting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. Thank you for accepting this challenge! Make sure to share this opportunity with friends.

DAY 1: Anti-Racism vs. Non-Racism

Today, we start this challenge by posing an opportunity for each of us to embrace anti-racism. We invite you to explore the differences between anti-racism and non-racism. Upon initial reflection, these terms may seem quite similar. The difference, as the resources below explore in more detail, is the active nature of the term “anti-racist” and the passive nature of the term “non-racist”.

What may seem like irrelevant semantics, makes a tangible difference in the way those who adopt each term, respectively, choose to understand and impact the world around them. Anti-racism requires active reflection, critical consciousness, personal accountability, intentional action, and an understanding of the structural, deeply rooted nature of racism.

Anti-racism is an active way of being in the world that seeks to understand and transform it. Anti-racism doesn’t require you to always know the right thing to say or do in any particular situation. Anti-racism prompts you to take accessible action, to work against racism whenever you find it, including, and perhaps most especially, racism that you encounter within yourself.

Angela Davis states that, “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”

If you have…

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Read this article that defines Anti-Racism from the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre and explains the power inherent in the term.	and	Listen to this podcast featuring historian Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to be An Antiracist,” outlining racist ideology as a force in American society.	and	Explore this interactive article detailing the nature of racism across levels & spheres of influence, with tools to embody anti-racism in decision making.

daily Reflection

Once you have completed today’s challenge, take a moment to reflect on any insights you experienced. How did the challenge make you feel? What is something you learned? Did you notice anything about yourself after taking the challenge? Consider sharing this new awareness with a friend or group to help deepen your understanding of the information.

One of our YWCA Spokane team members, Mia, explains why this challenge is important to her:

“The 14-Day Challenge is important to our community because it brings to light a deep rooted, often overlooked issues that often impact the daily lives of every one of us, no matter our race or identity statuses. Community participation creates an opportunity to foster an environment where we are encouraged to ask questions, be curious, grow, and learn. Many of us have not grown up in a context where we have access to information about oppression or injustice. I believe the creation of critical consciousness is essential in our communities’ work to build happy, healthy, equitable, societies. This challenge presents an opportunity for each of us, no matter our current level of knowledge surrounding social justice, to further our understanding, find community, increase the number of tools under our belts to aid us in this work.”

Let us know why this challenge is important to you by leaving your comment here. 

Share each challenge online with #YWCAEquityChallenge

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7 | DAY 8 | DAY 9 | DAY 10 | DAY 11 | DAY 12 | DAY 13 | DAY 14